Your Guide to Biohacking w/ Dave Asprey

Summary

Maria Menounos speaks with Dave Asprey about how light, darkness, sleep timing, and wireless technology may affect wellbeing. Asprey’s main message is to shape your surroundings to support your body’s rhythms, rather than trying to eliminate every possible exposure.

Key Strategies and Ideas

• Get outdoor light early in the day. Asprey recommends spending time outside in the morning without sunglasses and seeing the sunset when possible. He cautions against staring directly at the sun.
• Adjust light and meals across the day. He describes a pattern of morning light, brighter daylight and food around midday, then dimmer light and less food in the evening. He suggests trying not to eat after sunset.
• Aim for balanced blue-light exposure, not none. Asprey says blue light is not uniformly harmful; its wavelength, brightness, timing, and amount matter. He recommends blocking more disruptive light in the evening while still getting natural daylight.
• Make evening lighting dim and warm. He favors dim red lights placed low or in front of you for nighttime use, such as in a bathroom. He advises avoiding bright, overhead white light at night and notes that even red light can be disruptive if it is very bright.
• Make the bedroom darker. Suggestions include covering small indicator lights with electrical tape, reducing light leaking through curtains, and unplugging unnecessary devices. Asprey says darkness is important for sleep.
• Reduce wireless exposure where practical. Asprey recommends minimizing wireless use without panicking about it. Suggestions include:
  • Using wired headphones instead of Bluetooth earbuds when convenient.
  • Keeping a phone farther from the body and using airplane mode when possible, especially at night.
  • Turning off home Wi-Fi while sleeping if it is not needed.
  • Considering a wired connection if a phone must stay connected overnight.
• Prepare for travel. Asprey describes wearing a hat and blue-light glasses in brightly lit airports, using wired noise-cancelling headphones, and considering clothing designed to block electromagnetic signals. He also says he uses red or infrared light after travel.
• Notice how your surroundings affect you. Asprey encourages checking in with your body for signs of tension or calm, rather than assuming stress is caused only by thoughts or interactions.
• Treat wellness as a matter of trade-offs. He frames choices—including those involving technology and food—as weighing potential benefits against possible downsides, rather than labeling everything wholly good or bad.
• Distinguish intuition from emotion. Asprey says an initial impression may arrive before an emotional reaction and later reasoning. He suggests meditation or other awareness practices may help people notice subtle signals.

Asprey makes strong claims about artificial lighting, fertility, metabolism, and electromagnetic exposure. These are presented as his views in the conversation, not as independently verified conclusions.

Presenters and Sources

• Presenters: Maria Menounos and Dave Asprey.
• Reference mentioned: An unnamed Japanese study of about 800 adults concerning nighttime light and depression.